4:02 PM PT -- Kanye West is denying Brandon Marshall's claims about Yeezy and Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl.

A rep for Kanye tells TMZ ... "This is a completely fabricated rumor. It is not true."

Kanye West apparently intended to upstage Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl -- but the pop superstar torpedoed his plan -- at least, that's what one former NFL star is claiming.

Brandon Marshall -- who played in the league from 2006-2018 for a number of teams -- made the shocking allegation on his "Paper Route" podcast this week ... explaining that he'd heard Ye purposely purchased seats right in front of Tay Tay's suite for the Big Game.

According to this purported tea ... the idea, it seems, was an attempt to photobomb all her inevitable TV appearances. On its face, it comes across as a good old-fashioned spite effort.

However, the ex-All-Pro receiver explained the alleged scheme never came to fruition ... as Swift made "a call or two" to have Ye kicked out of Allegiant Stadium entirely -- that's what Brandon's claiming anyway.

Take it all with a grain of salt, but considering how polarizing Ye has been recently -- and Swift being the non-athlete face of the SB champs this season -- it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility the league may have nudged KW to somewhere a little more low-key.

It's also hard to say with any certainty whether she actually got him fully kicked out or not, as Brandon suggests here ... especially if he bought a ticket lawfully and by the book.

In any case ... BM sounds 100% confident that he's breaking news with the world here.

Also worth noting -- TMZ spoke with Ye for several minutes on Monday ... and he only mentioned Swift in a pretty lukewarm manner.

You'd think Ye would pounce at the opportunity to trash Travis Kelce's girlfriend if it really went down as Marshall claims ... but perhaps he got some details fudged up (after all, he did initially confuse Swift with Katy Perry, FWIW).

Either way ... Ye and his wife, Bianca Censori, were definitely at the venue ... with the former rocking a face covering featuring a white crucifix. There are photos of Kanye in the building -- and in the one pic that's going around, he does appear to be next to a stadium worker.

We've made some calls to try and clear the air ... so far, no word back.